The benchmark of Tehran Stock Exchange, TEDPIX, lost the psychological 1.3million level in the middle of the week to close at 1,293,237 points. The benchmark lost 4.2% or 56,000 points.
The TSE’s equal-weighted index, too, shed close to 4.2% in the week. Unlike the market cap-weighted TEDPIX, the latter index gives the same weight to all stocks.
Capital outflow by retail investors rose 100% compared to the week before, reaching 22.35 trillion rials ($77 million).
This indicates that 4.4 trillion rials ($15m) in retail money exited the market on average per day. Capital outflow has continued for 15 straight sessions reaching 53.2 trillion rials ($183m) up until Wednesday.
With the bearish trend and uncertainty looming large, value of retail trade declined 7% compared to the previous week. Average daily trade by retail investors stood at 25.6 trillion rials ($88m) last week compared to 27.6 trillion rials ($95m) the week before.
Iran’s share market has been struggling with a crisis since August 2020 after prices made historic gains in a very short period only to plunge deep down.
Observers say the market is in dire need of liquidity to make some sort of a comeback, arguing that the rising interbank rates, large-scale bond offers and mandatory pricing by the government on goods produced by listed companies are major risks that continue to harm share prices.